Four of Five Jews: Arabs Would Destroy Israel if They Could

Poll finds two thirds of the Israeli Jewish public think that even if a peace treaty is signed, 'Palestinians' would still want Israel gone.

By Gil Ronen

First Publish: 11/2/2010, 10:15 AM / Last Update: 11/2/2010, 10:13 AM

Flash 90

Even as the US, EU and other world powers continue to press Israel to reach a peace treaty with the Palestinian Authority, a new poll shows that Israeli Jews have no illusions about the worth of such a document.

A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found that over 80 percent of the Jewish populace of Israel agree with the statement “The Palestinians have not accepted the existence of the State of Israel and would destroy it if they could.”

By contrast, only about 21% of the Arabs polled – all Israeli citizens – agreed with the statement.

Furthermore, over two thirds of Jews polled (67.1%) agreed with the statement: “Even if a peace agreement is signed, the Palestinians will never accept Israel’s existence and would destroy it if they could.” A similar proportion of Arab citizens of Israel disagreed with the statement.

The results appear to show that Arab citizens of Israels are much more optimistic than Jews about their own sincerity regarding peace – and that of their brethren in Judea, Samaria and Gaza – or that they are being insincere in their poll answer as well.

Asked what the most urgent matter on the public agenda is, only 20.1% of Jews answered “reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians,” as opposed to 37.8% of the Arabs. The most popular answer among Jews was “Waging war on corruption and promoting proper administration,” which received 23.6%. “Closing socioeconomic gaps received 20.1%.